The stir suffered a setback in Dausa district where locals challenged the agitators and helped police in clearing the NH-11, which was blocked yesterday, police said.
However, the Delhi-Mumbai rail route and a state highway in Sawaimadhopur district continued to be blocked by hundreds of Gujjars who are squatting to press the demand for five per cent reservation for government jobs.
The Gujjars had yesterday threatened to intensify the agitation, which has mainly remained confined to Bharatpur and Dausa, and spread it across the state.
Meanwhile, there was a deadlock over the venue of next round of talks between Gujjars and the government after one round held in Bayana ended in a failure.
The government had asked Gujjar representatives to come to Jaipur today to discuss the issue at length but their leader Kirori Singh Bainsla is adamant on holding the talks in Bayana only, which is nearly 15 kms away from Pilukapura where the community members have blocked the railway tracks.
“We will not go to Jaipur for the talks. We will hold talks in Bayana only. I have given a letter to the government for this,” Bainsla told PTI.
The agitation, which was started on Thursday last week, would be called off only when the government fulfils the demand, he said.
“After discussion with our members, it was decided today to not go to Jaipur. We are open for the talks but we will not go to Jaipur, as proposed by the government, and any talk will take place in Bayana,” said Himmat Singh, spokesperson of the Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti.
District collector Ravi Jain said the Gujjars were being convinced to accept the government’s proposal to go to Jaipur.
“Jaipur is the right place to hold talks in detail and we are trying to persuade the Gujjars,” he said. On the fifth day of the agitation, Delhi-Mumbai rail tracks in Bharatpur and a state highway in Sawaimadhopur continued to be blocked causing inconvenience to travellers.
Several trains have been cancelled or diverted.
Since the Gujjars relaunched their agitation after seven years on Thursday last, one round of talks took place on Saturday between the Gujjar leader Bainsla and a committee comprising Health minister Rajendra Rathore, Social Justice minister Arun Chaturvedi and Food minister Hem Singh Bhadana.
However, the meeting ended in a failure with Gujjars saying the government did not come up with any concrete proposal.
Himmat Singh alleged that the government was trying to build pressure on them. “My farmhouse in Dausa was today raided by several policemen. It is a pressure tactics used by the government,” he alleged.
Bainsla, meanwhile, went to a hospital for a medical check up. The spokesperson said it was routine medical check up which was due.
Police have already booked Bainsla and his supporters for rioting, sedition, damaging public property, endangering life, obstructing public way, criminal conspiracies in three cases lodged on May 21, the day when they started the agitation, and Sunday.
The state government once again asked the Gujjars to come to Jaipur for holding talks.
The committee of three ministers- Health minister Rajendra Rathore, Social Justice minister Arun Chaturvedi and Food and Civil Supply minister Hem Singh Bhadana met at the secretariat here and issued a fresh letter proposing the Gujjars to come to Jaipur, according to a government spokesperson.
The Gujjars have been asked to come to Jaipur on a day suitable to them.
Meanwhile, agitators captured Agra-Jaipur National Highway in Dausa again tonight and squatted there, forcing the authorities to divert the traffic through an alternate route.
“Gujjar protesters returned late in the evening and blocked the highway at Sikandra. The situation was tense in Sikandara but nothing violent happened. The agitators confronted the locals, who chased them away earlier in the day, but police force controlled the situation,” IG Jaipur, D C Jain told PTI.
Police, paramilitary forces have been deployed in the area to maintain law and order, he said, adding that the situation was tense but peaceful.
The highway was blocked yesterday but it was cleared early today after the locals chased the agitators away.
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